Pete Docter studied It's a Wonderful Life closely while making Soul, surprised at how dark it was on a rewatch: a man who thinks his life has come to nothing is shown, from outside it, what it was worth.
Film· 1946· Drama
It's a Wonderful Life
by Frank Capra
It's a Wonderful Life: 4 recorded works trace back to it.
What It's a Wonderful Life influenced
Works that record this one as a source, with the evidence a contributor gave.
Matt Haig has acknowledged Capra's It's a Wonderful Life as an inspiration: a despairing protagonist shown the lives they might have had, learning that "often you have a lot more than you think". Nora lives her other lives rather than watching a world without her.
Frank Darabont named Frank Capra's films, It's a Wonderful Life among them, as inspirations, calling Shawshank a tall tale more than a prison movie: a decent man whose quiet hope outlasts a cruel institution.
A general debt. Gale and Zemeckis cited the small-town America of Frank Capra's films, and Roger Ebert wrote that the film resembles It's a Wonderful Life more than any time-travel movie: a hero shown how his town would be without the right choice, down to the alternate, ruined Hill Valley of the sequel.